


a happy ending

by thisisthefamilybusiness



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Babies, Childbirth, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family, Family Fluff, Fluff, Happy Ending, Motherhood, Parenthood, Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser DLC, Pregnancy, Reconciliation, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 02:12:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18273701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisthefamilybusiness/pseuds/thisisthefamilybusiness
Summary: Things will change in the coming weeks. A child is many things, for both of them: a commitment, a promise, the closing of one act and the opening of another. One of the things Hanaden’s learned about him is that he longs for the finality of endings, be it the gallows or the final bow at an opera. One of the things she’s tried to help show him is that endings are simply new beginnings.





	a happy ending

She’s due soon, belly rounded out so far she can barely see her toes. She’s forced to walk with a wider step that she refuses to categorize as a waddle, no matter how closely it may resemble one. It’s been a long ten months. 

Blackwall doesn’t need to ask permission to sleep beside her (he never really needed to, outside of their bedroom games) but he does it anyway, mattress dipping with his weight and one of his heavy hands settling over her stomach as he curls up beside her. He’ll press an ear to her belly, sometimes, listening to the rapid fluttering of their baby’s heartbeat, or try to feel their movements within, but right now they just lie in the quiet darkness. 

Things will change in the coming weeks. A child is many things, for both of them: a commitment, a promise, the closing of one act and the opening of another. One of the things Hanaden’s learned about him is that he longs for the finality of endings, be it the gallows or the final bow at an opera. One of the things she’s tried to help show him is that endings are simply new beginnings.

Warden Blackwall is gone, but Thom remains, though his new name—his old name—still feels odd between her lips, a harsh distinctly surface sound to it that she never quite mastered, so he becomes Blackwall again, a title he works every day to earn. 

When her labor starts she sends him away. It will be a long time before the contractions become productive, and he’s better served working out his anxiety than nervously holding her hand for hours. From the windows of the hallway, Hanaden can see him chopping firewood, splitting the wood into planks with far more force than is necessary. 

She laughs and rubs at her sore hips before she starts pacing again. The women of her family have always had long labors, and her own mother labored for a full day before she was finally born. She expects hers will be longer still—their child is larger than a completely dwarven baby would be. The midwives have all reassured her that movement will only help the process along, so Hanaden paces the hall between her quarters and the common areas until she’s tired herself enough that she can manage to doze off. 

It is seven hours since her labor began before Blackwall reappears in her quarters, his anxiety at being kept away apparent. Hanaden lets him in with a smile. The midwives are playing cards and she is walking, still, as much as she able, pacing the room instead of the hallway. He brings her ice shaved off of one of the huge blocks kept in the kitchen cellars. She reclines back in bed and lets him rest a heavy palm on her belly as she happily crunches on the ice shavings. 

“Suppose you couldn’t be talked into Thom Junior now?” Blackwall’s smiling, but still she can see a trace of fear in his face. Hanaden settles her hand over his on her belly. 

“You said no to Bhelegora.” She winces at the end of her sentence, a contraction seizing up her body for a few painful seconds. Blackwall looks so frightened that Hanaden can’t help but giggle. “It is okay,” she assures softly. “All normal.” 

Blackwall nods, but he doesn’t look any more relaxed. She gestures for him to lean in close, and he obeys. His face softens when she gives him a kiss on the cheek. “I love you,” he mumbles. 

“I am still not naming the baby Thom.” That makes him laugh, finally, and Hanaden settles back into the nest of pillows she’s resting on in bed. “Stay,” she says, lacing his fingers with hers on top of her belly again. There’s another contraction, but this time Blackwall looks less afraid. 

It’s a few hours of uneasy rest before it’s time. Blackwall doesn’t say a word when the midwives politely nudge him out of their way, but he offers Hanaden his hand from the bedside. It feels like it must have been the space between two heartbeats when her grip goes tight around his hand and then,  _ one, two _ , there’s the softest little cry Hanaden’s ever heard. 

Blackwall squirms at the afterbirth and blanches while Hanaden simply laughs, exhausted in a way that reaches her bones but so, so worth it when one of the midwives finally sets their baby on Hanaden’s chest. 

“Oh,” Blackwall says, like every word he knew was suddenly stolen from him. “Oh. That’s...” 

She smiles and brushes a hand down their daughter’s back. A bit bigger than most dwarves, but not by too terribly much, chubbier and softer than a human newborn. With her first cries in the world done, their daughter promptly drifts right back off to sleep, tiny cheek pressed into her mother’s chest. 

“That’s... And you, she’s....” Blackwall makes a little choking sound and reaches his hand out, touching the fine softness of their daughter’s hair. Black hair, like her father. “She’s.... She’s very small,” he finally chokes out. “And wonderful.” 

“She’s...” Hanaden can’t think of the surface word for this feeling. Maybe there isn’t one. “Wonderful,” she repeats. 

**Author's Note:**

> [my blog](http://officialclaricestarling.tumblr.com) | [my twitter](https://twitter.com/gabiibanescu) | [lattes and frappucinos](https://ko-fi.com/clstarling/)


End file.
